WEST CHICAGO -- The evolution of a season often produces marked improvement by teams, and newly emerging stars.

Both elements were in play at Saturday’s Wheaton Academy Tournament second round match between Plainfield North and Wheaton North.

Ranked 25th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25, the Tigers (9-2-1) used a great individual effort goal by Allie Kroll with 16:53 left to break a tie and produce a 2-1 win.

A freshman, Kroll showed the cool of a varsity veteran in turning a nice upfield pass from Victoria Thornton into the deciding score.

“When the ball was played in by Victoria, I saw the girl (Wheaton North defender) on my right,” Kroll said, “I saw her come across a little bit more toward my left foot which had the ball.

“So I thought if I did a crossover and cut it in I would have a clear space. I opened up and saw the goalie coming out, so I just crossed it in towards the back of the net.”

Kroll’s nice sidestep move to get free and place a 12-yard blast inside the far (right) post decided the latest win in a great start for Plainfield North.

The Tigers defeated Class AA power and host Wheaton Academy 2-0 in Friday’s tournament opener, and now clinches the tournament title with even a tie against Downers Grove North next Friday.

“We knew going into today that, in order for us to win this tournament, we had to win this game,” said Thornton, a senior whose goal and assist in the match earned her Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match honors.

“I think everyone was super motivated, and we were just going hard and trying as hard as we can to score. When I saw Allie, that was a great run that she had. I was able to play it to her, and she finished it very well.”

But while Plainfield North seized the win, the match was also a very promising sign of the emergence of Wheaton North (3-9-0), whose grueling early season schedule has impacted the squad’s record – but not its potential or attitude.

“I thought we played really well,” said Falcons captain Jaden Trometer, who provided strong play at defender and also assisted on Wheaton North’s goal.

“We knew they were going to be a tough team, and very offensive. I thought we handled it very well in the back and overall on the field. Kailee (Sowers) did a great job of marking, and that really helped us win some balls.”

Sowers followed her solid match at midfielder with some honest postgame analysis of the Falcons’ recent progress.

“I think about what would have happened if we had played that team (Plainfield North) at the beginning of the season, and we would have gotten clobbered,” Sowers said. “We’ve come a long way. We’re actually getting (the ball) down on the ground and playing now, passing around teams more, and we’re focused. We know what players we need to mark when we’re in the game. We had a few of their players man-marked the whole game. That helped us a lot.”

Wheaton North had to cope with a potent Plainfield North offense, which flexed its muscle early for a quick 1-0 lead.

Just 5:39 into the match, Renae Blevins’ perfectly struck corner kick from the right side connected with Thornton for a header putaway at the back post.

“That’s what I like to do for all the corners,” Thornton said. “I usually just sit in the middle, and Renae who takes our corners is really good at placement of the ball. So she looks for me a lot, me and Abby (Gustafson), and I just look to get on the end of it.”

But after that potentially devastating quick strike, Wheaton North proved resilient.

“We’ve had a lot of tight games this year, and they all seem to be going the other way (four losses by one goal),” Falcons coach Tim McEvilly said. “So when they score a couple of minutes in, it’s easy to kind of lose a little bit of pace of play. And I think we did lose a little bit of that during the first half.

“We didn’t give up a lot of dangerous opportunities, but we weren’t finding them ourselves. But our girls got more aggressive offensively in the second half, in addition to defending behind the ball. So that was great to see.”

The second half surge by the Falcons would eventually tie the score 1-1. But the rest of the first half featured multiple Tigers chances.

In the 10th minute, Wheaton North goalkeeper Ava Lynch made a lunging deflection wide of a Gustafson shot.

Then after a strong Falcons bid in the 15th minute of play (Kate Kortenhoeven’s attack on goal and shot wide left), the Tigers closed the half with frequent maximum pressure.

With 8:30 left until halftime, Thornton nicely broke up a clearing attempt and drove in on right wing – only to be thwarted by Lynch’s diving deflection to her left and control of the rebound.

Then in a 35th-minute sequence, Lynch made a diving catch on Thornton’s 8-yard header (set up by a Makenna Woodill cross), and followed 25 seconds later by just beating Thornton to a send towards the crease.

Wheaton North provided a sneak peek at its second half surge 1:55 before the half. Trometer’s 35-yard free kick resulted in consecutive headers towards the net by Sowers and Sarah Brcka, before Plainfield North’s Daelyn Thompson cleared the box.

Trometer’s next chance at a free kick (this one from 45-yard range) would come with 34:58 left and hit the jackpot.

Her send to the box spun loose deep in the box to Sammie Schomig, whose 6-yard drive from in-front tied the game 1-1.

“My free kick was a deep ball, and I kind of dropped it back post,” Trometer said. “I thought that was good because that’s where all of our runs had been crashing recently, because they know I can put it back there.

“We definitely had a lot of bodies in one area. It comes out, and it’s a great goal. That was a big (50-50 ball) win for us.”

Said Sowers: “We got really good pressure on their goal and made them mess up.”

Coming off a 2-0 loss to Downers Grove North in Friday’s tournament opener, the Falcons dug deep in the second half for a quick score and energized performance the rest of the way.

“I definitely think it’s all mental,” Trometer said of playing back-to-back games against tough foes. “You need to look forward to the next one, and you want to fight and be that person that comes out on top. It’s definitely all mental playing back to back (days), a harder barricade to hop over.”

That hurdle seemed invisible in Saturday’s comeback.

“I’m really proud that they were able to reorganize themselves in the second half,” McEvilly said. “I thought we were going to find a way to win the game to be honest. We come back to tie it up, and the way the momentum looked the last 25 minutes or so…

“But (Plainfield North) is a quality squad. no. 24 (Thornton) is extraordinarily dangerous. And their center midfielder no. 11 (Blevins), we did a great job on her -- Kailee Sowers marked her throughout the game, and she wasn’t able to put her imprint on the game. That helped us reduce their opportunities.”

With its lead gone, Plainfield North didn’t fold.

“We were just really motivated (after Wheaton North tied it 1-1),” Kroll said. “We really wanted to win this game, and I think you could see it in our play and our intensity in how we got back to where we were (in the lead).”

That intensity nearly paid off with 30:15 to play.

Off a Blevins corner kick, Thornton had another nice header strike (this time from in front) – only to have it carom off the crossbar.

Then after a Wheaton North handball with 26:40 left, Blevins’ 34-yard direct kick resulted in a nice short hop save by Lynch.

Those two tests were matched by the Falcons, mainly with 18:25 to play. A Stacie Galo pass set up Michaela Van Meter’s chip pass towards the crease.

After beeing that close to a 2-1 deficit, the Tigers answered 90 seconds later with the Kroll goal – leading to Plainfield North’s sixth win in its last seven games.

“We connect the ball a lot,” Thornton said. “We work well together, and we pass the ball well, so I think that’s huge. And the middle of the field is a huge thing to control.

“It’s kind of a newer team compared to last year, with a lot of new girls. But we’re working really well together from where everyone has come from (before the season).”

Freshman Kroll is one of those newcomers fitting in quite nicely.

“It’s great,” Kroll said. “The girls are amazing, they’re so nice and very supportive. It (being a freshman on varsity) wasn’t a big deal or anything.”

While staying on the attack up 2-1, the Tigers also needed big defensive stands late in Saturday’s match.

A Trometer 50-yard free kick with 11:40 left proved dangerous, reaching Brcka in the box before Plainfield North’s Claudia Baginski cleared the ball.

Plainfield North’s offense answered with a great sequence with 7:30 left. Molly Grant’s shot on a strong 1-v.-1 attack was deflected wide by Lynch, and the ensuing corner kick produced a 25-yard shot on goal by defender Kylee Colwell.

From there, the Tigers’ defense did the rest.

Madonia caught a 12-yard drive by Kortenhoeven (off a Sowers pass) with 5:30 to go. Madonia then batted away a Galo goal line cross to the front with 4:10 left, and Trometer’s 20-yard free kick with 1:20 to play went just over the net.

Colwell and Thornton also each had nice 50-50 ball wins/steals and clears in the final minutes. Then with 35 seconds left, a Baginski block and Mckenna Kalina send upfield halted the Falcons’ final threat in the Tigers zone.

“I think our biggest focus has to be scoring,” Sowers said. “The goal by Sammie today was good, because we’re usually not the type (of team) to get those tough goals that are kind of scrappy. I think that has a big point of focus for us.”

Plainfield North kept its defensive focus for a strong late stand, producing its third straight-win (with a 7-1 scoring advantage over opponents) since an April 10 loss to third-ranked powerhouse St. Charles North.

“I think our team is doing really well with connecting and switching the point of attack,” Kroll said. “Our chemistry is getting a lot better as we go on through the season, and I think our team is great with our composure on the ball.”